Mark Samuels - Mannequins in Aspects of Terror

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Man n eq u in s in A sp ec t s o f Te r r o r b y M a r k S a m u e l s

The office tower had long fascinated me. The building dominated the skyline in the Euston area of

London and consisted of twenty-seven floors with an e terior of dark green glass. ! would ga"e at this

structure from the window of #arlow and #arlow Associates$ the architectural firm at which ! had been

employed for the past five years. %uring this period of time$ ! had observed a process of gradual

abandonment taking place in which company after company deserted the office tower. &ommercial

success seemed to elude any business located there. An increasing number of its windows were dark bynight. 'rom what information ! could gather$ those working within its confines complained of a general

malaise and progressive worsening of staff morale. ! learnt that various health and safety checks were

made in order to try and determine the nature of the problem but that these proved inconclusive. There

were rumours about the air-conditioning carrying some form of Legionnaires( %isease$ but e tensive

tests showed no trace of its presence. #lame was officially attached to a psychosomatic tendency that

indiscriminately affected all those who worked in the tower. This conclusion satisfied no-one and was

not favoured as the reason for the nebulous degeneration amongst the staff and management. #oth

sides preferred to cling tenaciously to their own theories as to the true cause of the problem.

'inally$ ! saw that the last of the companies had seemingly relocated and the single floor that had

been lit during the hours of darkness now possessed windows as black and as much a part of the night

as the others. !n my mind(s eye ! saw the building(s abandoned and silent spaces$ empty offices$ and

labyrinth of chill corridors. The vacancy of the office tower stood in stark contrast to the teeming

metropolis surrounding it$ where streets and buildings were overrun with hoards of swarming people.

! came to believe that the office tower had a profound effect upon the ambitions ! had for my

future work. My past architectural designs$ created on behalf of the firm$ brought me little satisfaction.

My realised pro)ects had only consisted of nondescript homes$ public utilities$ and an unremarkable

bus depot in the north of the country. ! longed for the opportunity to work on a larger scale$ on some

construct that could be seen for miles around$ my own pinnacle amongst the office towers scattered

across the city. !t was my ambition to be the designer of another tower that might have the same stark

impression* rising high above the teeming streets$ framed only by the sky$ encouraging one(s ga"e to be



drawn upward along its straight lines. !n idle moments ! would draw plans of my own proposed tower

and$ invariably$ its own lineaments carried some reminder of the structure that was in my view for most

of the day.

! reasoned that it was solely for the purposes of my pet architectural pro)ect that ! so badly

wished to wander around inside the office tower. +et perhaps it was also my desire for isolation thatdrew me to it. &ertainly ! was conscious of its appeal becoming stronger as more and more of the

windows remained unlit at evening and so$ now completely abandoned$ it seemed to me a

consummation of terrible beauty amidst the maddening whirl of asinine human activity. ! viewed it as a

vertical desert$ closed off from the outside world$ a region without any distractions.

,ome days after the lights on that last occupied floor were e tinguished for good$ ! tried to gain

entry to the office tower. ! had finished my work for the day at the architectural firm and walked

through the series of streets that lay between my place of employment and my destination. ere ! to

encounter a night watchman patrolling outside$ ! hoped that ! might even be able to turn this to my

advantage by bribing him into granting me access to the interior of the building.

As ! drew nearer to the office tower ! would frequently tilt my head upwards and ga"e at the

gigantic monolith that blotted out the night sky. #ut by the time ! finally reached my destination ! was

forced to accept the fact that gaining entry was ne t to impossible. The foyer had been boarded-up and

padlocked and the glass of the first two floors were protected by corrugated iron sheets. Looking up

again at the darkened windows beyond these barriers ! fancied that ! saw briefly a pale white face at

one of them$ but quickly realised that it must have been only an illusion. The whole building wascertainly now deserted and there was no reason or even means for anyone to be there.

'or a time ! wandered aimlessly around its perimeter and across the abandoned square of

concrete loggias and unused parking facilities in which the building stood. !n the end$ however$ ! gave

up on my hopeless task and made my way home to my apartment on the other side of the city.

'or weeks thereafter$ ! retreated by day to the realm of my imagination and at night would dream

of treading those lost corridors and empty offices$ canteens$ stairways$ storage rooms$ and bathrooms.

%uring my lunch hours at the office where ! worked ! would make studies of the office tower$ charting

its angles and lines in great detail. My fascination with the tower made my work colleagues curious

and some of them even asked to view the structure through the field glasses that ! had purchased so

that ! could e amine it in more detail from a distance. ! felt some resentment at any interest they

displayed and believed that only ! alone could truly appreciate the splendid starkness of its design and

the desolation that it housed within.

! had long felt that those who knew me regarded me with a certain suspicion. This attitude of



theirs seemed to stem primarily from knowledge of the amnesia that had afflicted me five years ago.

My first authentic recollection was of wandering aimlessly in the streets of the city$ unable to tell

anyone who ! was or whence ! came. ersonal memories of my past life did not return and my new

identity had been constructed piecemeal ever since. As a consequence of my amnesia$ ! was an ob)ect

of police attention for a year$ and what fuelled their suspicion was the fact that my features had beenradically changed. Evidence of plastic surgery was apparent from the scars ! bore$ though my blank

fingerprints denied the authorities the means of linking me to any criminal or suspect whose details

they had on file. That ! had been a victim of some assault or accident was obvious$ for my hair and

teeth were torn from their roots and ! was forced to resort to artificial substitutes for both. %ental

records were$ therefore$ as useless as fingerprints in helping to establish my former identity.

Eventually the police had to concede that there were insufficient grounds for keeping me under

surveillance. !t was then that ! began to try and start my life all over again. All of the )ob vacancies for

which ! had applied had been with firms of architects and ! felt an unaccountable compulsion to take

up this type of occupation. After months of fruitless interviews$ the architects #arlow and #arlow

Associates agreed to take me into their employ as a trainee for a trial period$ on a very low rate of pay.

/owever$ it was soon apparent that ! was already familiar with the requirements that the position

demanded. !ndeed$ as ! worked$ a feeling of d0)1 vu was my almost constant companion and

specialised knowledge that ! was not aware of possessing came back to me. &onsequently$ ! rose

through the firm(s ranks with great rapidity and was soon entrusted with senior pro)ects$ though their

very limited scope gave me no real sense of satisfaction.2ne afternoon$ whilst ! was making my way back from a caf0 where ! had purchased a sandwich

for my lunch$ ! was handed a flyer. ! had )ust turned a busy corner close to the local underground

station when someone had stepped forward and thrust a piece of paper into my hand. ! had taken it

automatically but when ! glanced at it ! was e tremely taken aback* the advertising leaflet had the

name 34olmi3 printed in bold letters across the top. !t was a name with which ! was familiar. ! looked

back over my shoulder to try and locate the man who was handing out these flyers$ but he was lost in

the crowd.

! turned back towards the direction from which !(d )ust come$ pushing past the people in my way$

until ! was at the spot where the flyer had been handed to me$ )ust outside the station. ! could see no-

one handing out leaflets. There was a homeless man wrapped in a blanket asking for spare change$ a

woman giving away free city maga"ines$ but no sign of my quarry. Then$ out of the corner of my eye$ !

caught sight of a stiff-backed man walking awkwardly towards the ticket barriers in the station and he

half-turned to regard me from behind dark glasses. My ga"e briefly met his own and though ! could



make out nothing of his shielded eyes ! was struck by the strangeness of his skin$ which possessed a

sheen like that of plastic.

2nce ! was back in my office ! e amined the flyer more closely. !t was an invitation to visit an

art installation that had long been housed on the uppermost floors of the abandoned office tower. This

installation$ conceived by the artist Elea"er 4olmi$ had apparently been e hibited there for anindefinite period$ but ! had not been aware of its presence. The pro)ect was entitled Mannequins in

Aspects of Terror and the leaflet claimed that participants would en)oy an audio and visual art-

e perience of 3infinite claustrophobia3. 4olmi(s work was well known to me$ though not in the conte t

of the art world. /e had been the architect who designed the office tower that housed this installation.

%ue to my interest in his structure ! had tried on several occasions to track down 4olmi and

e press my appreciation for his designs$ but had been advised that he no longer worked in the

profession and had$ effectively$ 3gone underground3 after a severe personal crisis ten years ago. Those

! spoke to regarding 4olmi had said that some sort of nervous breakdown was to blame for his

disappearance. #ut now it seemed that he had returned and reinvented himself as a conceptual artist.

The flyer told me that the installation had been temporarily closed for new additions to be

incorporated into the work$ but that it was due to reopen on the last day of the following week.

Admission was on the door$ with no prior booking.

5

hen ! arrived at the office tower on the designated night$ ! found that the padlocks had been

removed$ the boards covering its windows had been taken away and the foyer had been opened. Theinstallation was advertised by means of a poster on a small hoarding ne t to the entrance. This poster

had a gaudy yellow background and black lettering in a gothic script. At its centre was a grainy

photograph of the artist himself. !t showed a man in his fifties with grey hair. /e possessed a high

forehead and dark eyes. 2ne of them$ the right$ seemed considerably larger than the other$ giving the

face a strange$ almost lop-sided appearance. Even aside from this feature$ the face in the photograph

was somewhat bi"arre. !ts e pression reminded me of the type of rigid look that was common in

daguerreotypes from the mid 67th

&entury$ where the sub)ect had to be perfectly still for four or fiveminutes due to the time the camera shutter had to be open for the e posure.

! again ga"ed up at the monolith whose presence signified the vacancy in which ! longed to

immerse myself. The fact that 4olmi had designed the very building that he had chosen as the

backdrop to his art installation offered the possibility that he$ too$ had realised the spectral potential of

the office tower and that he was also one of those who relished desolate spaces in the teeming



metropolis. Might this not be indicated by the fact that he had kept his installation intact as the office

tower became utterly deserted8 ! wondered if it were the case that some dim intimation had come to

him during his architect days as to the final destiny of his pro)ect* to house his own personal

nightmare$ to create a structure in which human beings could not function. &ould his blueprint of

elaborate angles and lines that went to make up the office tower have been designed to cause the verymalaise from which those who had worked there had suffered8 Might not the mannequins in his latest

pro)ect$ the art installation$ be metaphors for those assimilated within the interior vacuum of the office

tower8 ! thought of manufactured imitations of the human body* unthinking$ blank9 form without

content$ eyes that stare but do not see$ hands that reach but do not grasp$ mouths shaped for noise but

unable to speak.

! entered the foyer and made my way to a desk where there was nothing more than a sign

declaring that the installation began on floor twenty-si and that payment was to be made once one had

e perienced it. :e t to the sign was a list of entry times. ! saw by my watch that my own appointment

was scheduled for five minutes hence. The last visitor had signed the register five minutes previously

and marked the time clearly. !t seemed that admittance was staggered to ensure the necessary isolation

for each visitor in turn.

At the appointed time ! faithfully signed the register$ walked over to one of several lifts and

pressed the button for the nearest to collect me. A sign indicated that this was the one to be used in

order to visit the art installation. ! watched the numbers on the indicator above the single door flash

from twenty-si downwards as the lift descended. hile ! waited ! looked at the blank spaces wherewooden boards advertising the companies that had occupied the tower had been torn away.

hen the lift arrived ! opened the outer door and then pulled back the inner trellis door that

separated me from the panelled wooden cage within. The interior was not large$ having a capacity for a

ma imum of four persons. The back wall was comprised of a full-length mirror. 4a"ing into it$ ! was

somewhat startled by my an ious-looking appearance. My eyes seemed to stare wildly from behind my

glasses and my cheeks were pale and drawn with tension. The business suit that ! was obliged to wear

to work seemed apt$ as did the briefcase ! carried$ since ! had come directly from my office and had not

had the opportunity to change my clothes.

! still harboured unease at the idea of the sterility and emptiness of the office tower being

modified by an art installation. At worse$ ! thought that ! might be able to bypass the installation and

e plore those regions unaffected by it. %oubtless it was this uncertainty that had given rise to the

feeling of tension that welled up inside of me.

The cage rumbled upward through the lift shaft$ and floor after floor passed me by before !



reached the twenty-si th$ where the installation began. ! pulled back the trellis door$ opened the outer

one and entered a long and dimly lit corridor. The floor was covered by green linoleum. !t curled

upwards with old age where it met the walls. !n certain places it had come away altogether$ revealing

the stained concrete underneath. ! also saw holes in the false ceiling$ where panels of polystyrene had

fallen down$ out of which trailed teeming cables and wires. There was a door to my left and$ impelled by sheer curiosity$ ! went through it into a bathroom that was thick with dust. The cubicle doors hung

a)ar and the toilet bowls were broken$ with fragments of porcelain scattered on the floor. ! returned to

the corridor and further along saw a notice$ indicating which direction to take.

! turned right. ;p until this point ! could discern no evidence of the art installation$ for this ne t

corridor seemed to be e actly the same as the first. ! was however$ beginning to feel a sense of

emptiness creep over me$ deadening my spirits$ and replacing the tension !(d previously felt. The

isolation was complete. ! felt utterly alone and as ! walked through the confines of this artificial void$

its atmosphere of neglect and decay grew steadily to affect my mind$ turning it toward the numbness

that it craved.

And then$ as if from a great distance$ ! believed that ! heard a sound$ much like the white noise

found on frequencies between radio stations. !t grew no louder as ! proceeded and ! could not detect its

source$ though ! suspected that it must have been piped through concealed speakers. Looking through

the windows to my left ! saw the vast panorama of the city below$ its glittering sodium-orange lights

appearing to be so very far removed from this enclave of desolation. ithin the building$ it was eternal

twilight$ grey and shadowy.There was a large office to my right and ! entered into it. The room was completely empty and

there were marks on the thin carpet where tables$ chairs and filing cabinets must have once stood. !

moved on. #y now$ it was only by a conscious effort that ! could detect the continuous hiss of

background static$ for it had become subliminal through familiarity.

! saw another sign as ! passed along the ne t corridor. !t was a ragged thing$ with letters scrawled

as if in a child(s handwriting$ and made of cardboard. ritten upon it were the words* Mannequins in

Aspects of Terror .

Then ! came across the first of the mannequins. !n the twilight of that corridor$ and from a

distance$ ! initially thought that it was an attendant but its perfect stillness suggested otherwise.

As ! drew nearer to the mannequin ! noticed that the background hiss contained a new element.

This change in its nature alerted me again to its presence. There were definite words amongst the static$

though broken and garbled$ like speech distorted by poor radio reception. ! could not make out the

words$ but the voice seemed to speak as if in terrible pain$ as if it were incoherent with that pain. !



thought that one of the words might be 3alive<3 croaked out over and over again$ but could not be sure.

! had drawn close enough to see the face of the mannequin. The artist had wrought a thing that

was insidiously disturbing. !ts face was rigid and fro"en in stark panic$ as if it was confronted by a

particularly horrific sight. The arms were raised as to ward off some approaching menace. As ! stared

at the thing$ ! felt contaminated by its aspect$ and could not help imagining that my own features weremimicking those of the dummy. And ! thought of that gaping$ lifeless mouth actually forming the

broken words that mingled with the low$ background noise of the static$ driving my mind towards the

infinite moment of fear in which the mannequin itself had been fro"en.

This noise began to fade as ! continued to walk across the length of the corridor and was

gradually replaced by another sound$ like that of people muttering lowly to each other whilst engaged

in office work in some part of the building very close by. The mutterings were clearly audible and !

could not shake off the feeling that these persons were conscious of my presence and even discussing

my imminent arrival$ even though the idea was absurd.

! began to mumble to myself involuntarily$ and the sound of my own voice offered some meagre

comfort$ even though its low and enfeebled tone displayed every sign of unease as ! drew nearer to the

noise.

At the ne t turning was an office that appeared$ at first glance$ to be still in use$ for it was

brightly lit$ unlike the rest of the twenty-si th floor. ! paused for a moment$ taken in by the illusion$

until ! perceived that the figures therein were absolutely motionless. ! entered the room and had the

unsettling idea that they had stopped their activities once ! had first caught sight of them. The soundsof activity$ most notably the muttering$ that ! had heard with increasingly clarity had also ceased at that

e act self-same moment. ! told myself that a hidden motion sensor had detected me and must have

simply turned off a tape recording that was part of the installation$ but the irrational part of my mind

still insisted that ! was being observed and$ even worse$ possibly controlled in some indefinite fashion.

'our mannequins occupied this office$ all of which$ e cept one$ were hunched in front of dead

computer screens. Their hands were at the keyboards$ as if they had )ust been interrupted in the act of

typing. The dummies were dressed in business suits that showed signs of old age and wear. The elbows

and cuffs of the suits were frayed and there were patches of ugly discolouration across the pinstriped

fabric. The mannequins seemed to be smiling. #ut as ! drew closer for a better look at them$ ! saw that

those smiles were not pleasant$ but were crafted so as to resemble the rictus grins of lunatics$ without

humour or warmth.

The sole mannequin that was standing had been clad in one of the same shoddy suits as the

others$ but its e pression was entirely different. The thing(s eyes bulged and its mouth was open in a



grimace of agony much wider than any possible in a mouth of flesh and bone$ a grimace that reached

literally across the whole width of its plastic face. !ts body was twisted over to one side in a contortion

of agony. The only emotion that this thing of profound deformity seemed to have been designed to

create in an observer was one of repellence.

hen ! had left this office and carried on walking along the corridor outside$ the sounds ofactivity started up again behind me$ furtively at first$ but with increasing boldness as each step that !

took drew me further away from the source. ! could not help looking back as ! walked away$ for ! had

an irrational dread that the standing mannequin would start into spasmodic life and come after me. !

could not rid my mind of the image.

This whole e perience had not been quite what ! had anticipated. The mannequins did not seem

to symbolise the void that ! had imagined. They seemed rather to stand for some greater abyss that lay

beyond it$ a wasteland$ not where thoughts die away$ but are endlessly repeated$ where madness is

continuous and without cessation.

! had by this time reached the stairwell up to the ne t floor and a notice indicated that ! was to

ascend. The walls here were in a shocking state$ being riddled with cracks and spaces where the sepia

paint had flaked away. A draught of air coming from above bore with it the unmistakable odour of

mould. /ere on the stairwell the noise of movement ahead became louder and ! could hardly bring

myself to make the climb. The echoes filtered through a door directly at the top of the stairs and now

that the sound was clearer ! detected what ! thought were more voices. These were not like the low

mutterings that ! had heard previously. They were much clearer and made no attempt at concealment.They filled me with dread. These voices possessed a breathless and hollow quality as if the

unintelligible words they uttered were formed by some imperfect replica of the human model$ speaking

in accents that betrayed their attempt at imitation. ! thought of lips not designed for speech$ croaking

out anguished words$ trying$ vainly$ to communicate but hampered by their own rigidity.

! stood there on the stairwell for what seemed like hours. hether it was the awful atmosphere

that worked on my brain or whether the sound was real ! couldn(t tell$ but ! heard the awkward

footsteps of something approaching the stairwell from the floor below. !t seemed to stagger forward$

dragging its limbs awkwardly like a drunk. The sound made me panic$ and ! raced towards the door

ahead$ bolting through it$ with no other thought save flight.

hen ! was through the door the sound of the broken voices ceased. ! stood in a corridor with

my back to this door$ shaking and listening for movement behind it. There was none. And ! wondered

=if ! dared open it> would there be a form slumped on the stairs$ a form horribly familiar$ now again

inanimate$ or would it be standing there with a look of triumph$ its impossibly wide mouth framed in



was so awful that ! could hardly register the enormity of the scene before me.

The closest mannequin to me looked like the victim of a car crash. !ts face and trunk had been

smashed in and one of its arms was ripped away. 2nly the false eyes were whole and peering into them

! knew$ with awful clarity$ that consciousness was nevertheless present in what remained. The artist$

the maker of these mannequins$ had reached beyond the boundaries of pain and terror in his work.There was a mind imprisoned in this broken form that was e periencing an agony no living thing could

bear$ which flesh and blood could not possibly tolerate. That word 3agony3 could not begin to even

hint at their suffering* to be endlessly dying and never to be released.

#ut ! moved on$ screaming soundlessly in my mind. And all around me were those dismembered

dummies in their eternal death throes$ each separate part riddled with pain.

My eyes involuntarily rolled back in their sockets. My knees buckled beneath me and$ with a

loud clatter$ my body slumped forward to the floor amongst the mounds of mutilated plastic remains.

! heard the sound of footsteps approaching and then felt myself being turned over onto my back.

Looming above me was a man whose skin seemed more like plastic than flesh. /is right eye was much

larger than his left and this gave his features a lop-sided appearance. /e made a low$ grinding noise

like broken machine gears$ trying to gain control of a mouth that should not be able to utter sounds.

Although the words were indistinct$ he seemed to be saying 3 ood to ha"e you back 3.

/e delved into a leather tool-bag that he carried with him$ drew out a blowtorch and ignited the

hissing gas flow. The )et of blue flame glittered in his dead$ cold eyes. And ! knew that the torment !

had e perienced up to this point was only a foretaste of the eternal torment that would begin once theartist 4olmi set to work on my helpless and immobile body.

Mark Samuels - Mannequins in Aspects of Terror

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Transcript of Mark Samuels - Mannequins in Aspects of Terror